A New Meaning for Connected Health at 2016 Symposium (Part 3)

The previous section of this article paused during a discussion of the accuracy and uses of devices. At a panel on patient generated data, a speaker said that one factor holding back the use of patient data was the lack of sophistication in EHRs. They must be enhanced to preserve the provenance of data: whether it came from a device or from a manual record by the patient, and whether the device was consumer-grade or a well-tested medical device. Doctors invest different levels of trust in different methods of collecting data: devices can provide more objective information than other ways of asking patients for data. A participant in the panel also pointed out that devices are more reliable in the lab than under real-world conditions. Consumers must be educated about the proper use of devices, such as whether to sit down and how to hold their arms when taking their blood pressure.

Andy OramCostantini decried the continuing silos in both data sharing and health care delivery. She said only half of doctors share patient data with other doctors or caretakers. She also praised the recent collaboration between Philips and Qualcomm to make it easier for device data to get into medical records. Other organizations that have been addressing that issue for some time include Open mHealth, which I reviewed in an earlier article, and Validic.

The biggest complaint I hear from clinicians about EHRs–aside from the time wasted in their use, which may be a symptom of the bigger problem-is that the EHRs disrupt workflow. Just as connected health must integrate with patient lives as seamlessly as possible, it should recognize how teams work and provide them with reasonable workflows. This includes not only entering existing workflows as naturally as capillary action, but helping providers adopt better ones...